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Marvel Amps Up The Hype For “Civil War II”

Monday, January 11, 2016

After announcing the next big cross-over for Marvel in December, news on Civil War II is finally starting to get the ball rolling for fans to get excited about. This is the sequel to the original Civil War arc from 2007.

The original 2006-2007 Civil War miniseries, by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, focused on hidden identities, superhero registration, legacy character deaths, and brought up questions about national security and civil liberties in a post-9/11 arena. In the upcoming Civil War II event, they take their cue from Marvel’s cinematic 2014 film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If you know that a crime is going to happen, how far will you go to prevent said crime? The Minority Report-esque question was posed in the first act of Cap 2’s movie when Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) showed Captain Rogers (Chris Evans) a look at Project Insight, a force of new age helicarriers meant to spy/eliminate potential threats. This ends up being the deus ex machina of the film and then led to the subsequent dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In Civil War II, written by Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez, we will see Iron Man go up against Captain Marvel in a battle of hurt feelings and ideologies, rather than having Stark facing off against Captain America once again. This separation of superheroes into factions is prompted by a new character who can see the future and which begs to question whether it is just to punish someone who is foreseen to commit a crime, but has not yet done so. Of course with a question this moral, the major superheroes are going to pick sides immediately. In this case it will be Captain Marvel leading the “more security” side (for anticipatory enforcement) and Iron Man (more than likely having learned his lesson from the last confrontation) heading up the “more liberty” side.

The latest art (above) released by Marvel shows Captain America (Sam Wilson not Rogers) and Iron Man on the same side, along with Star-Lord of the Guardians of the Galaxy, while Captain Marvel’s side includes heroine/lawyer She-Hulk, and Spider-Man (Peter Parker). We can only hope for the best as these beloved characters fight it out, but it’ll probably end up like the last Civil War in a completely FUBAR situation. In fact, Marvel has already announced that major character death will occur.

Just yesterday, The New York Daily News reports that Bendis and company settled on the fate of the high-profile characters at a recent Marvel editorial retreat. They’ve settled on who would go to comic superhero-heaven, and who would be left with blood on their hands. The writers and editors cheered at their dramatic choices. The only superheroes that we know for certain that won’t be victims are Spider-Man and the Human Torch, but technically, anyone else is up for grabs, even Captain America (again). Whoever dies will probably be retired from the comics for a few months, maybe even a year or two. This also could leave room for another breakout character to come out of the folds.

“A mysterious new Marvel character comes to the attention of the world, one who has the power to calculate the outcome of future events with a high degree of accuracy. This predictive power divides the Marvel heroes on how best to capitalize on this aggregated information, with Captain Marvel leading the charge to profile future crimes and attacks before they occur, and Iron Man adopting the position that the punishment cannot come before the crime.”

I, for one, am excited about this new event in the Marvel Universe, even though it’ll be sure to be full of all the feels. The first Civil War event shaped so much that happened at Marvel afterward and paved the way for even more fans and devotees to delve into the Marvel Universe. Who knows, maybe this will be the next event to happen in the MCU after the Infinity Wars arc is completed. I love Captain Marvel, and all I could think of when I heard the announcement was “WHYYYY?”, but I’m still so excited to see all the characters who are going to be involved, especially with new additions to the foray like Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Miles Morales, and Lady Thor. With Star-Lord in the foray, that means a definite clash between him and Captain Marvel, plus Rocket Raccoon and Groot, and with the surprisingly pleasant addition of She-Hulk as a major player, maybe we’ll get a peek at the new version of Hellcat. It’s definitely going to be a who’s who in the opening landslide of characters sure to sectioned off as Civil War II makes it way through the Marvel Universe.